This invention generally relates to handgun holsters and more particularly concerns a holster with improved features to prevent inadvertent withdrawal of the handgun from the holster. The holster is designed to retain the handgun securely and yet to permit rapid withdrawal when required.
In recent years it has become apparent that most attacks on police officers by assailants trying to remove an officer's handgun from the holster have come from the front or side of the officer and not from the rear, as previously thought. It is obvious that an assailant has more mechanical leverage as well as an unobstructed path by simply pulling forward and up on the handle of the weapon while standing in front facing the officer or facing him at his side. Holsters as typified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,630,420; 4,542,841; 4,273,276; and applicant's own U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,902,639 and 4,286,741; attempt to make it difficult for an assailant to remove an officer's handgun from the rear. They have not, however, addressed the more important problem of protection against an attack from someone facing the officer. As a matter of fact, in the above cited patented holsters, once the securing strap is unlocked, it is significantly easier for an assailant facing an officer to remove the weapon from the holster than it is for the officer himself to draw that same weapon. In most of these holsters a violent pull of the weapon from the front will stress the securing straps to cause release by shearing or simply unsnapping. As pointed out in U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,841 the handgun is drawn by a forward-upward motion; which is the natural direction for an assailant facing an officer and pulling on the handgun. It should also be noted that it is readily apparent even to an untrained person, how to unlock the securing strap on these prior art holsters. A single securing strap is employed to allow the officer to unlock his holster with a single motion. Additional separate securing straps or devices have not been employed because of the additional delay entailed in drawing the weapon. General tradition has dictated the design of the release strap such that the officer releases the strap with his thumb as he begins the drawing motion. This places the release mechanism at the top or top front of the holster which is not only visually obvious but easily accessible to an attacker facing the officer.
It has been expected that the securing strap of the holster might become unlocked in a violent attack. Because of this possibility, an internal locking method is incorporated in some of the prior art holsters so that the handgun will not fall out inadvertently from the holster when unlocked, and also to make it more difficult for the attacker to remove the handgun from the holster in an attack from the rear of the officer. Generally, the internal locking means engages the back recurve of the trigger guard or the top ledge caused by the cylinder of a revolver. In more recent times the popularity of the semiauto pistol, has posed a problem in the design of a secure holster, because this type of handgun has no cylinder ledges nor trigger guard recurves to serve as a locking point. An attempt to lock upon the forward portion or the trigger guard is not preferred because only a few models of semi-automatics offer a flat ledge at the forward portion of the trigger guard necessary for the locking action. Also common modifications to the front of the trigger guard, such as checkering or stippling, make such a locking locations inoperative.
It is believed that neither a front opening nor a rear opening holster affords the necessary security to the holstered handgun, if the retaining strap is unlocked. A total enclosed top opening holster provides better security from a force straight forward or rearward, but the design of the present top opening holsters does not offer any internal locking device which can be easily unlocked by the trained officer as part of the drawing motion.
It is an object of this invention to provide a handgun holster which overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art, and is designed to provide a holster which secures the handgun from withdrawal by any but the wearer and yet permits a fast withdrawal upwardly by one trained in using the holster. It is another object to provide a holster that provides obstacles to one attempting an unauthorized withdrawal of the handgun from the front or side of the holster. Other objects will appear in the more detailed description which follows.